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“Becca…” I reached for her, but she pulled back again, then turned and ran out the door.
I fell to the mattress, sitting on the corner of it, hands in my hair. Becca was breaking apart, hurting more than I’d ever seen her hurt before. Rex was taking the girls from me. He’d beaten me up. And I knew this was just the beginning, and for what? Because Dad and Rex could? Because they couldn’t handle anyone being happy or moving on?
I wanted nothing more than to take Riven, Betsy, Becca, and the girls and get us all the fuck out of here, as far away as we could go.
“I hope the other guy looks worse.” My head snapped up at the sound of Betsy’s voice. I hadn’t even realized Becca had left the door open, and now there she was.
“Shit,” I cursed quietly. This was the last thing we needed. “Bar fight. Not sure who it was.”
“Bullshit,” Betsy replied, and if I wasn’t feeling so shitty about everything, I would have laughed. “After what happened with Riven, you’re not that dumb. Did your brother do this?”
I sighed. Riv wasn’t going to be happy, but I didn’t have the strength to argue right then. “Yeah. You know how it goes. We’ve never gotten along.”
“And you and Riven are hiding something from me too. I don’t know how stupid you boys think I am, but I promise you, I’m not. The story about the cameras wasn’t slick.” She walked over and sat beside me on the bed. “Tell me my boy isn’t doing anything he’s not supposed to. Tell me he’s not going down the wrong path again.”
“He’s not. God no. I wouldn’t let him even if he wanted to, but more importantly, he doesn’t want to. I don’t think he ever wanted to do the things he’d done. He just never believed he had a choice, and now, he’d never do that stuff again.”
She nodded, then reached over and patted my leg. “I knew that, I did. I just needed to hear it. I love that boy more than anything in this world.”
“He loves you the same way.”
“How about I make us some lunch. We can relax in the house where it’s cooler. You can nap in there or do a puzzle with me, anything you want.”
“I’d like that,” I told her, just as my phone beeped. I reached over and grabbed it, not surprised to find a text from Riven.
Everything okay with Becca?
I wasn’t surprised he had seen her through the cameras.
No, it’s not, and now Betsy is here and I’m going to the house with her. I’ll explain everything later. Come straight home after work.
See you soon.
“Do you love him?” Betsy asked.
“Yeah, yeah I do.”
“Then everything else will be okay.”
I smiled at her, hoping like hell she was right.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Riven
The only thing I saw all day was Parrish’s bruised body, his swollen face. Over and over again, I tried to shake the image out of my head, but it never worked. Maybe it was distorted for a few moments and I couldn’t make it out, but then it was there again, stalking my thoughts until I nearly lost my mind.
He could say it wasn’t my fault all he wanted, but that wasn’t true. No, I didn’t control Rex’s actions, but they hit Parrish to hurt me, to hurt him for being close to me, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t ease the pain of that…nor the anger.
“You okay?” Smitty asked me near the end of the workday. “You’ve seemed edgy all day.”
I wasn’t surprised he’d noticed. I was on my phone more than I ever was, keeping an eye on the cameras and notifications or texting to check in with Grandma. She knew now he’d been beaten up, so that was something we would have to deal with.
“I’m good,” I replied, wanting to get the fuck out of there, but they were already short-staffed because Parrish was out. If I called in, I had a feeling Tom would show up at my house to check on me, and that wasn’t something we could deal with right now. Having my boyfriend who’d had the shit kicked out of him there would make him ask questions.
“Something go down with you and Parrish?” Wayne asked.
“What?” My gaze shot to him.
He shrugged. “He used to watch you…then you started watching him too…and now you’re both more obvious than you realize.”
Well, shit. Okay, then. “We’re fine. I just want to finish this day out and get home to him.”
They nodded and didn’t bug me for the remainder of the day. I took care of my shit, but the second I was in the truck, it was like it had a mind of its own.
That was a lie, and even I knew it. But I didn’t have it in me to go home. I couldn’t let this shit slide. They had hurt him, and I would fucking kill them for that if I had to, consequences be damned.
